Lost Island Saga
by sunny09
Summary: My first One Piece fanfic. The crew gets trapped in a strange storm and is forced to go on to the feared, famed, and danger-filled Lost Island! Chapter six is out! R&R! Don't let my crappy summary change your mind! Rated T to be safe...
1. The Decision

The first chapter in my fan made saga, Lost Island. ONE PIECE RULES!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece all the characters belong to Oda-sensei!

**Chapter 1: The Decision**

The door to the women's quarters opened as the orange haired navigator stepped outside. The Navigator, called Nami, of the Straw Hat Pirates wore a simple navy blue skirt and a red, sleeveless top. Her short orange hair glistened in the warm breeze that blew by, making her glad she wore the sleeveless top. She blinked a few times and yawned from yet another sleepless night. She had not slept well for about a week, but instead tossed nervously around with worry for the next day. She dreaded what she was about to see, but could guess what awaited her. The sun was blinding. Once the glare from the bright morning sun had died down, she observed her surroundings with a tight stomach. The bright blue sky and ocean water glistened with sunlight. There were creamy, white seagulls eyeing swarms of silvery fish. Flecks of small fluffy clouds completed the scene. It was a perfect day.

Nami's heart began to pump faster. This had been exactly the 18th day in a row that had looked like this. Calming herself, her navigating skills came into effect. She forced her mind to become aware of every bit of her surroundings. First came the warm tingle of the sun and the sweet salty breeze blowing through her hair. Then even further, the waves rocking the ship beneath her feet, the deep menacing shadows of the clouds as they moved across the deep blue ocean, and finally up to the heavens, the atmospheric pressures. She felt a calm, high pressure. _Still,_ there was nothing indicating any threat of even a sprinkle of rain, let alone a storm. How strange, she had never seen such a long pattern of perfect weather. It was almost as if-

"NAMIIIII!"

But, of course her thoughts were interrupted. She rarely had a moment to think, let alone worry, she thought to her self as the men's quarter opened. All the men came out looking half dead with sleep and dragging their feet, with an exception, of course. The Strawhat crew's obnoxiously optimistic captain bounded out with the usual childish beaming grin on his face. It's still a surprise that someone so innocent was the 300 million-beri captain, Monkey D. Luffy, wanted by the marines.

"Nami, Nami! What're you doing just standing there?! Sanji has breakfast ready," Luffy shouted at her before jumping off the balcony, into the kitchen. He didn't even bother using the stairs in his hungered state.

Using the stairs, because that's what they were _there_ for, Nami joined the boys and the whole crew trooped into the kitchen. Sanji, the crew's gourmet chief, was already there, of course. Sleep was the only thing that stood in Luffy's way of eating the whole kitchen. Sanji was forced to get up pretty early to avoid Luffy bursting in and gobbling down all the meat before he could even cook it. The archaeologist, Robin sat in the corner of the room reading a new thick book that read, _Tales of Lost Island_. Usopp the sniper, Franky the shipwright, Chopper the doctor, Zoro the swords man, Brook the musician, and Luffy bombarded the table like barbarians, while Nami filed in after them still a little troubled. Her confused thoughts didn't last long, though, as the Strawhat's usual mealtime took place.

Robin joined the group and Sanji served the food. It was fabulous, as every meal always was. Fruit parfait in the finest crystal glasses; danish, scones and muffins in a variety of flavors and toppings filled the following dishes. Then came pancakes with strawberry sauce and powered sugar sprinkling the edges. Finally, the "must have course" came, which consisted only of meat. Bacon, drumsticks, Cornish hens, and grilled strips of beef decorated the plates. Everyone in the room dived at the food on the plates but they were all in vain. Food began to disappear left and right in front of their eyes as Luffy's arms wound in and out of the plates gabbing as much has they could hold and shoving it all in his mouth.

"Luffy, that was MY drumstick!"

"Oi, my plate's completely empty!"

"JEZZ, I can never eat at MY pace Luffy, MY PACE!" Shouted various nakama as Luffy went on his usual rampage.

"NAMI-SWWAANN, ROBIN-CHWAANN!" Sanji came over to the girls with hearts in his eyes.

"Here you are, my wonderful ladies. This is the finest cuisine on this ship," he said, laying down some fruit parfaits in font of them and parrying Luffy's arm as it reach for them.

"Why, thank you Cook-san," replied Robin.

"MMM, it tastes great Sanji-kun," smiled Nami, as she reached heaven in her first bite.

"AHH! My life is complete with you two angles content from m-!"

"Shut up and eat, love cook," Zoro interrupted Sanji with a sigh.

"What did you say, marimo head!"

The two were head to head in a usual fight, when Nami interrupted them. She wiped her mouth and expressed her concern.

"Hey you guys, I know we've been doing great, and the log says we're right on course to the next island, but don't you feel this is just too perfect." She looked up for a response, but no one was listening. 'Oh come on, can't they ever listen to what's important,' she thought as her face showed irritation.

"HEY, BAKAS! Listen to me, there's danger!"

"Huh, danger? Where?" They turned around cocking their heads.

Nami sighed. "Look I think we should turn back. I have a very bad feeling that there is something bad ahead. Lets just go to the next island."

"Huh, where did this come from all of a sudden, girly?" asked Franky.

His response was a punch to the head.

"Don't call me 'girly'!"

Next Zoro asked, "We made it through tons of danger before now. How much harm can a little more do?"

"Well, it's like the calm before the big storm, you know," she replied, while Franky rubbed his head.

"But, Nami, I want to have another adventure! It's been so boring sitting out here for weeks," said Luffy.

"W-w-wait Luffy! We should definitely go around. When someone says "danger" you stay far away from it," stuttered Usopp. "What if there are monsters!"

"Monsters!" Chopper suddenly cringed.

"But, of course the great Captain Usopp would protect you all! Don't worry. HA HA HA HA HA!" Usopp puffed out his chest and put on a brave face as his legs shook.

"OOOHH, WOW, you're so amazing Usopp!" chopper applauded him with shining eyes.

"Yes, yes, by the way did I ever tell you how I single handedly defeated more than a hundred Baroque Works agents at Little Garden?"

"Whoa a hundred!? Are you kidding me?"

"Yup."

Chopper hung his head in disappointment as Usopp laughed.

"ANY WAY, back to the point. What do you think captain?" Nami turned to Luffy.

Luffy just looked at her and said simply, "If we turn around we would miss an adventure, right?"

"Heh, typical response from Luffy. There's an adventure ahead, so looks like we go straight forward," Sanji said with a grin.

"See, this crew's always going for danger. No point in arguing," Zoro leaned back in his chair closing his eyes.

"SUUPPEERR," shouted Franky as he jumped up from his seat.

"I will put my life on the line! Oh, but I'm already dead!" said Brook pointing to his empty eye sockets. "YO HO HO HO! Skull Joke!" Brook chuckled at his joke that no one laughed at except Luffy.

"HA HA HA HA, inst he so funny!"

"I have no idea where you get your sense of humor," Zoro gave Luffy and exasperated stare.

Usopp hung his head in depression and walked to a distant corner.

"Save me Chopper, my do-not-move-straight-into-danger-sickness is acting up again.

"Sorry Usopp there's no cure."

Robin smiled over her book as Nami just sighed at her nakama's responses. For once she agreed with Zoro, there was no point in arguing when Luffy was captain.

"It's almost a unanimous decision! OK crew, full speed ahead!" Luffy pointed in a random direction. Nami turned his arm in the complete opposite direction, which was were the log was pointing.

"AYE!"

* * *

There you go! The first chapter. Phew, that took a lot of work. Please tell me what you think, so I can post the second chapter:)

By the way, check my profile for the translations to the Japanese words I stuck in.


	2. The Storm

Ok the second chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. All the characters belong to Oda-sensei! WO HO! One Piece rules:)Thanks SenseiXD!

* * *

Chapter 2: The Storm

If one were to look at the Thousand Sunny from a distance they would see nothing out of the ordinary. Zoro was in the crow's nest training and keeping a look out. He continuously lifts a weight way to big and heavy so that even a professional trainer would weep at the sight of it. '1000, 1001, 1002,' he chanted in his head. He counted one number higher after each heave and a new bead of sweat would appear each time, running down his bare chest. 'I've got to become…_stronger!'_

Robin was watering her flowerpots. She had just finished talking to Sanji over a cup of coffee and decided to take a quick break from her book. She was pleased on how they looked. Next to Miss. Navigator's tangerine patch, they were brilliant colors of blue, green, red, and purple. She had her own little rainbow on the ship and it calmed her to care for it.

Franky and Usopp were downstairs in Franky's workshop working on their latest cola run invention. Hammering in the last nail, they tried the silvery machine on its job, a torpedo launcher. They set it in the canon's position ready to shoot. It started smoking and shaking as they tried it. Hopefully Luffy hadn't mixed up their cola with soy sauce again or else things were going to get messy.

Sanji was in the kitchen making dinner and scheming new ways to making Nami fall for him, while Nami was in her room working on her charts. She was still nervously awaiting the storm, but her was absorbed in her work. She was in a routine; dip quill in ink, scratch another mountain down, dip again, and so on. She was perfecting Thriller Bark, the ship island.

Luffy and Chopper were fishing with no prevail and listening to Brook play his violin to _Bink's no Sake_.

"AHH, there's no fish today," Luffy sighed in frustration.

"The aquarium is getting low on fish," Chopper said.

They continued sitting and anticipating the tug on the pole in their hands to indicate a fish. But, after a few seconds Luffy got bored. He sat up and jumped down from the side of the ship, tossing down his fishing line.

"Where are you going, Luffy?" Chopper followed him and threw down his line on top of Luffy's.

"Let's go get the fish we caught yesterday and ask Sanji to cook them," Luffy grinned, licking his lips.

The two ran across the lawn of Sunny, laughing, excited for some fresh fish. They were at the top of the aquarium, still outside with a large net. They looked down into the deep abyss. It was like a small ocean. The delight of seeing schools of multicolored fish had left the tank because Chopper was right; they were very low on fish. As if to confirm this, Luffy's stomach growled.

Suddenly, there was a breeze that ruffled Luffy's jet-black hair and Chopper's fur. They didn't notice this subtle hint of the dangers ahead, but Robin looked up from her flowers at the sky and Nami's head snapped up from her work.

'It's here,' she thought to her self. 'I _told_ them so.' The air pressure had just come to a sever drop and she knew there was a storm coming. This was beyond any storm she had ever felt. She ran out side to warn the others, but Zoro's voice already was on the loud speaker.

" Hey there's something up ahead. Looks like some pretty dark clouds."

The wind was picking up and the sun was slowly disappearing, engulfing the ship in darkness black as night.

"Everybody on deck! Now!" Nami was in full navigator mode and no one dared defy her. Everyone ran to his or her assigned positions. As Luffy ran by, Nami smacked his in the head.

"Ouch Nami!" He had a large lump on his head.

Nami sighed. "You see what you get us into?" He just looked at her with his innocent eyes.

She let him run off again because the weather was getting _much _worse. Now the sky and the sea, both the same dark shade, looked like a giant black hole ready to swallow the Sunny-Go. The black ness rumbled menacingly as the first drops of rain came and the wind picked up. Zoro and Luffy were just finishing tying up the sails and getting pelted by the rain, now falling like knives in to their skin, when a cry, barely legible over the wind and rain, came from down stairs.

"We've got trouble down here!" It sounded like Usopp. The other Strawhats tried to hurry down, but the ship was already rocking at maximum speed. They fought their way across the ship against the stinging rain and screaming wind as lightning flashed above their heads. They all made it down by using the lightning to see and clinging to each other to avoid going over board (to Sanji's great pleasure Nami was holding his arm so tight he had nail marks for about a week). It wasn't any better inside either. Tables were thrown half way across the room, books were strewn everywhere, and some of Choppers medical equipment were mashed and giving of a strong odor.

"Usopp! Where are you?" Chopper sounded scared.

"Below, in Franky's work room!"

"MY, work room! That has my latest invention in it! OH, and my cola supply!"

And so they ran to his voice. They found Usopp franticly nailing wooden planks to an enormous hole in the wall. Water rushed in as Franky sloshed over to make the quick repairs and to save his cola. Everyone pitched in to help Sunny.

"Umm, has anyone seen Nami?" Usopp looked around.

"Now that you mention it-" Robin was interrupted by a scream from up stairs.

"Oh great."

"What was that you stupid swordsman?! NAMI-SAN, I'm coming!" But Sanji stopped as he saw Luffy dash out the door.

"Arg, that stupid guy! He doesn't think before he acts! Brook, go with him and keep him out of trouble ok?" Sanji was shaking his head.

"Alright! I'll keep my eye on him. But, I don't have any ey-!"

"Just go," everyone shouted in unison.

Meanwhile, Nami had been trying to save her precious orange trees, which were being slowly torn apart by the storm. She couldn't see at all and she cursed her self at not sensing the storm sooner. 'Dig, dig, dig,' She thought to her self. 'I have to save Bellemere's trees!' Bellemere. What would she think of her on a pirate ship? She thought back to Arlong and cringed as the painful memories that flooded back. The horror of seeing her friends die right in front of her eyes. 'Yes, until the faithful day Luffy came.' She thought. 'I still can't believe someone like him saved not only me, but my whole village.' She would never admit such a thing to an idiot like Luffy, but she was deeply grateful to him. 'Yes, Bellemere would be proud of me!'

In a burst of strength she dug deeper and deeper. "I won't let this stupid storm take away everything that I earned back," she accidentally screamed out loud as she heaved up the first tree. Her scream was lost in the sudden gust of wind that nearly made her loose her footing. She clung with her nails to the edge of her garden, the black ocean far below her. The tree wasn't as lucky. It flew over the edge of her garden patch. 'No, no, NO!' She reached for the tree, but her hands slipped on the mud and fell with it. She felt the wind carry her off the edge and towards the black, swirling sea. It seemed to take forever to fall, the wind whistling past her. But she realized there wasn't any wind any more.

She peeked through half closed eyes and a clap of thunder followed by lightning showed her an arm around her waist. Looking down she saw another arm stretching like rubber, rapped around her tree. She felt something brush her cheek and reached to grab the straw hat that almost blew away in another breeze. For a moment, which seemed like hours, they hung dangling inches above the seawater. It occurred to Nami that Luffy had once again conveniently forgotten that he was a hammer. She fought back the urge to scorn him for the millionth time to be more careful, but held her tongue. Luffy's rubber legs, which were being held fast by Brook, snapped back up dragging the two people and the tree safely with them.

Now safe, Nami put the hat back on Luffy's head.

"Thank you Luffy, Brook," she whispered, still shaking.

She couldn't see Luffy's face; it was hidden in the shadows of his hat. He turned with an unreadable expression and his hand securely on his hat. A wall of clouds had built up in front of them crawling with lightning and black with death.

"What the heck is that?! The clouds are touching the ocean in a distinct shape!" Nami had never seen any thing like this. 'How could I let us get into this mess. I'm the navigator.'

The clouds didn't look like they were going to budge anytime soon. At this rate the current was going to take them right into the wall.

Luffy had reach Sunny's figurehead and three other figures could now be seen. Franky, Zoro, Sanji, and Luffy were in a line facing their death without flinching. Brook and Nami watched them wearily. There was a moment of silence and then they tensed. Luffy pulled back his arms, Zoro unsheathed his swords, Sanji spun until his leg was a glowing fiery inferno, and Franky sucked in a deep breath.

"Gomu Gomu no, Santōryū, Diable, weapons….BAZOOKA, HYAKU-HACHI POUND HO, JAMBE, LEFT!" All of them sent their attacks straight at the cloud wall and the very air around them exploded with the sheer force of it.

"Nothing that hurts my nakama can get away with it," Luffy growled with a menacing stare at the hole that had appeared in the clouds.

* * *

Hoped you liked it. I plan on having the next chapter out by Friday or Thursday!


	3. A Midnight Visitor and a Blood Sacrifice

Someone told me that I was kind of threatening people to comment. I'm very sorry everybody if I freaked you out. Don't feel obliged to review, you just have my appreciation if you feel like it.

Anyway, here's the third chapter! I officially decided that since this is a saga, I'm going to make over 15 chapters. (I planned out the story line and I got a total of fifteen)

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda-sensei has that privilege all to himself. Yay Oda-sensei!

**Chapter 3: A Midnight Visitor and A Blood Sacrifice**

"We need more ply wood over here!"

"Aw man Franky, you sure are useful around here." Usopp was amazed at how well Franky fixed the ship. Not a plank was out of place and all the water had been filtered out of the ship with a quick filterer Franky whipped out on the spot. He still missed Merry and couldn't help but think if they had just found Franky a little earlier…

"Deux fleur!" Robin was speeding up the ship's repairs with her arms sprouting in several places at once and hammering.

"Hey you should be thanking this lady over here," replied Franky with a grin. "She's been super helpful. Makes me almost want to eat one of those fruits."

Usopp wanted to be helpful too, and started painting the new planks of wood at the speed of light.

Over in Chopper's room, Chopper was just cleaning up after fixing Usopp's broken nose that had swollen to the size of one of Nami's biggest mikans, along with Nami her self, who had got pretty scraped up from the storm.

'I just can't believe that they were able to even manage without a doctor before I came. This crew is one big accident waiting to happen.' He smiled absentmindedly to himself thinking back to when he first met them. Now he couldn't imagine a life without his friends. And to think, he used to be afraid of humans! Behind him Zoro was silently slipping off his bandages and heading off to train.

"Hey, put your bandages back on Zoro!" Chopper shouted. Zoro flinched as he was caught.

"Oooohhh, I wanna swim, I wanna swim!" Luffy was leaning over the edge of the ship with longing in his eyes. Nami had just finished giving him, along with Zoro, a good thrashing for not listening to her _and_ getting her almost killed from their bad decisions. Meanwhile, they thought with exasperation, 'It was _you_ who decided to go out for a tree in the middle of a storm.'

"The mystery water isn't sea water right?" Luffy pleaded.

"No!" Nami smacked him over the head. The "mystery water," as Luffy called it, was freaking her out. She hadn't seen water like this before.

Robin came over to see too.

"What peculiar water," she said with awe. The water was a thousand colors swirling together in a blended rainbow. It shown like it had a golden covering and was as still as glass. What surprised the crew the most was that even though the Thousand sunny was smack in the middle of it, there was no reflection and no ripples. Sanji was dropping various small objects into it. They made a splash like in any ocean water, but not a single ripple.

**A little while before:  
**

The Strawhats had got there when they blasted the hole in the cloud. Sunny sailed straight through the hole with bright light shining from the other side. With the thought of finally seeing the sun again, they eagerly went through. Nami, Chopper, and Usopp waited on their toes, eyes wide with delight and mouths in a large smile. Strangely, the moment their ship went through to the other side, the cloud closed up again behind them. They were trapped from all sides by clouds and enclosed in a dark cloud box.

"Waaaahhh, were gonna die!" Usopp was clutching his head screaming. Chopper and Nami were on a full fledge panic attack too, smiles dropping from their faces like flies, gaping at the crazy clouds.

Luffy was laughing, back to his normal self. " That was awesome! Lets do it again!"

"Uhh, I hate to make this situation worse, but where are we?" Sanji was staring behind them. The others turned around to see the strange scene laid out in front of them. They were floating on the mystery water, the very atmosphere around them glowing with the strange liquid. Then there was the contrast of the dark clouds surrounding the small, rainbow ocean in a circle. The clouds menace was swept away by the light of the water and in the very center of this sanctuary was a small island. The island its self was glowing. Every plant and tree glowed with sheer life force so great, that even from the distance between the crew and the island, they could feel a force pulling them towards it.

" Woooww. This is soo cool!" Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp's jaws dropped with glowing faces.

Nami had money signs in her eyes, when she started talking about the glowing island looking like gold.

"What is up with this place?" Zoro wasn't as amazed as the others.

"It can't be! Is it _the island?_" Brook was gaping at the island like a fish.

"Huh, what island?" asked Nami, Luffy, Sanji, Usopp, and Zoro.

"How fascinating! It has to be it," Robin seemed to know what Brook was talking about. "Those who have been in the Grand Line for a while have all heard the stories of a strange island of gold," she explained to the confused looks of the new comers to the Grand Line.

"What? You mean the island on Sky Island?"

"No,"

"It's been called Lost Island," added Franky. "Anyone who goes on the island never comes back. That's why it's known more as a legend since on one actually came back as a witness. Bakaburg once told me that."

"Yohohoho," Brook chuckled softly. " It made my skin crawl every time I heard the rumors about it. Although, I don't have skin."

While the Grand Line survivors dove into horrible rumors about bodies on the glowing island, the others were soaking it all up.

" A-alright, it's decided that we are DEFINETLY getting out of here." Usopp was at his limit.

"No, I wanna go! It sounds cool," Luffy complained.

"You have a really weird taste for 'cool'," Zoro settled down for another nap, already tired of this situation at hand.

Unable to come to a desion, they skirted the edge of the cloud wall, unsure of whether or not to go near the island and mystery water.

**Back to the present:  
**

This island was always bright with light, so the crew had to just assume when to get up and go to bed. It left them very irritable. Still, they drifted in and out of their decisions. Once they felt like it was far too dangerous, the island would always lure them back with its golden beauty. After the seventh day of drifting and pondering, desperation seeped through the ship.

"There is no way we are getting out of here," Nami had tried unsuccessfully to break the clouds with her Clima-Tact. The clouds were stronger from the inside because not even Luffy, Zoro, or Sanji could break through them.

Panting from trying, Nami called the crew to a meeting in the Aquarium bar.

"Look, we can't go on like this. We aren't going to get any where at this rate. So I hate to admit it, but I agree with the captain's decision." Luffy threw his nakama a grin that said, "I told you so," which caused everyone to throw a punch at him.

"Alright, I didn't care that much in the first place. This just means I'll need to keep us on course so we don't get lost," said Zoro touching his hand to his blades.

"Hey, I don't think you should be the one saying that. I wouldn't be surprised if one day you got lost going to the bathroom," Usopp said with exasperation.

"I don't see why not if Nami-san says so, but still don't you think we should take precautions. I mean after all the dangers Robin-chan talked about…" Sanji trailed off in thought.

"Hey, what about our warnings!" Brook and Franky were left out of Sanji's train of thought.

"Super! I just made a new invention yesterday that might help."

"Oh, Franky you mean _that_ invention," apparently Usopp knew what Franky was talking about. So down they went, following the only wooden steps that didn't creek in the whole ship. Franky was very good at his work.

They passed his workshop into the heart of the dock system. Usopp flicked on the bright sky lights which spot lighted an enormous silhouette. Its shadow was cube-like, but slightly rounded.

"What? It's a jumbo sized ball of string?" Sanji gaped at the huge machine. It looked like the reel of a fishing pole with copper string rolled in it as thick as a human arm. The string glistened in a pretty way that gave the machinery a professional glow about it.

"No! It's the ultimate Don't-get-lost device," explained Franky, as Luffy and Chopper got excited and started climbing to the top of it.

Robin finished analyzing the machine. "What a brilliant piece of machinery! It may look simple on outside, like a ball of string cook-san," she smiled at Sanji and he floated over to her with hearts flying in every direction, "but it can be very useful."

"Yeah, it's like Robin said, this baby is a super invention. See the string." Franky indicated to the copper rope. "This is no ordinary rope. You can only get it on certain summer islands in the Grand Line. They have a copper looking rock called Grianite that is abundantly produced on them. These rocks can be melted into rope or anything you really want. It's really quite helpful, considering it can bend and its weight never goes above a fourth of a pound."

"But, the most useful part of Grianite is, that it can literally, become invisible," finished Robin. "I studied it once in my home land's library. All you need to do is give a blood sacrifice and it will become invisible at will."

" Gah! B-blood! So you have to kill others to use its powers!? Who the heck would do that," Usopp pictured gory pictures on corpses draped over rocks.

"No, it's very simple actually."

Robin walked up to the giant rope.

"Excuse me, Miss Navigator." She sprouted her hands and took Nami's pocketknife that she had dangling from her short's pocket.

"Oi, Robin-chan! What are you going to do with that?" Sanji stepped forward in panic.

Robin just smiled her mysterious smile and brought the knife closer to her. Now everyone was up.

"OI!"

"Stop that Robin!"

"Robin!"

"Robin-chan!"

"Hey what's Robin up to?"

"Oh my! She plans on joining the dead, like me. Skull joke!"

"AH! Robin put that knife down!"

Franky just looked on with a grin on his face from everyone's reactions.

Robin slid the knife across her index finger making a small cut. She held it over the rope and a drop of blood fell on it as several nakama exhaled in relief. The rope began to glow and suddenly Luffy and Chopper were standing in mid air.

"SUGEE! It's awesome Franky!" Luffy praised Franky with a huge grin. Chopper clapped excitedly beside him.

"Heh, well, it was mostly my idea you know." Usopp was acting modest in the corner of the room like it was his idea.

"Thanks for confirming it Robin, you saved me the trouble."

"Mm, of course," she smiled at Franky.

"So know do you see why we have no chance of getting lost? We just connect the rope to us and when you tug on the rope, the this machine," he patted the large metal reel, "will reel you back to the ship. No one will notice it because it's invisible and weightless."

"Why is the rope that thick any way Franky?"

"Its main purpose is to attach to other ships so we can track them, but it can work for this situation just as well. You see it can break up into smaller threads as well."

"So, now that we have the Grinaitiy-thingy-"

"Grianite," exclaimed everyone at their naive captain.

"Ok! _Griante_ rope. We can go on the island now right?" He beamed at everyone with fire in his eyes. He was ready for an adventure.

There was a small silence as everyone debated the thought.

"Okay, okay, Luffy. We'll go since everyone can use the rope, and as long as there is no chance of _me_ getting hurt."

"Don't worry Nami-san, your knight is here to protect you," assured Sanji.

"Oh, and while we're there, I expect to get some treasure for some shopping at the next island. I could careless about what happens to you guys," she said flicking her wrist at the boys, "but, if we come off this danger infested island without a single beri, you guys will regret ever coming here." Nami had her scariest face on.

"Oh, so that's the _real_ reason she's going," they mumbled and sweat beads rolled down the sides of their faces.

Meanwhile, Usopp was crouching in the corner, suffering from do-not-go-on-this-island sickness.

Now that they had decided to go, the crew finished the day with dinner and a song from Brook. They stumbled off to bed with the thought of sleep in their heads. Zoro really stumbled along from all the ale he had, and Nami went with Robin to the much neater, women's quarters. All was quiet, no night birds or crickets could be heard from the ship's distance from Lost Island. The night continued on, until the bright, full moon could be seen through a crack in the thick cloud, far in the sky.

Bam! Suddenly there was a loud noise in the men's quarter.

"WHAT! HUH! DANGER!" Usopp flailed his arms in fright at the sound, and saw Luffy on the ground, snoring away.

"Gezz, he must have fallen off his hammock," he mumbled, trying in vain to calm his frantic heart down. No one else had woken to the sound, so he slowly laid his head down on the pillow of his hammock. He closed his eyes and tried to drift back to his dreams of him and his courageous pirate fleet of a thousand men. The night continued on as the peace and quiet returned. Then there was a tapping sound, which once again interrupted his dream. Weary, he glanced down at Luffy expecting him to be doing some other obnoxious activities in his sleep. Luffy wasn't stirring anymore. Zoro and Sanji were twitching in their sleep, obviously beating up each other in their dreams. Brooks jaw was gaping open loosely, while his hand was hanging limp off his pillow, tickling Chopper's nose. Franky wasn't making any tapping noises, but his large arms were making a clinking noise, after all, he _was _a cyborg.

Tap, tap, tap, tap. Again came the noise, this time from outside the door.

'Aww, this is getting a little creepy,' Usopp thought to himself. 'But it's probably the wind blowing a loose rope.' Realizing he had probably have to go fix it, he reluctantly got out of bed. Yawning and stretching out his arms, popping his joints, he quietly trudged out the door.

A crisp night breeze greeted him at the door. He was accustomed to this salty greeting each morning. He couldn't imagine waking up to a morning without it, or seeing the bright open sea, or even his nakama's playful laughter. But, strangely enough, a little under a year ago, he was in his cozy Syrup Village, telling his lies to Kaya and having adventures with the Usopp Pirates. He couldn't help smiling at all the real stories he could tell them now, as a real man. He owed it all to the knucklehead lying on the ground behind him. Thanks to Luffy he was able to start the life he always dreamed of, he could be a brave warrior of the sea now. All the warm memories filled him to the brim with happiness, until he noticed a small figure in the corner.

Usopp stopped short in his tracks. A bead of sweat dripped slowly down his face, as his hands grew clammy. Slowly, he turned around, as if he were trying to hide from whatever was there instead of the other way around. He took in a deep breath and chanced a quick peek around his shoulder. Wait. _Was_ it a figure? Now that he looked closer, the shadow belonged to one of the storage crates. To be completely safe, he dug out his sling shot from his pocket for safekeeping. Assuring himself one more time that no one was around, he began to search for any lose ropes. Usopp climbed up to the sails and began tugging the support ropes. They each stiffly responded as he tested each one.

'That's odd, none of them are loose,' he thought. Climbing higher, he reached the crow's nest. Inside the polished windows sat Nami on look out duty. She was dead asleep. If someone or something were to approach the ship, she wouldn't have noticed.

TAP, TAP, TAP!

The tapping noise was much louder, cutting through the still silence of the night. It caused Usopp to flinch a loose his grip. For a brief second, he felt himself tipping and tried desperately flapping his arms around him to no prevail. Then the dark clouds flipped upside down and the grassy deck became the sky, which was rapidly rising up to meet him.

"WAAHH!" He let out a scream before he hit the deck face first with a thump. He felt his nose crumble under the impact once again and sat up with a groan.

"Aww, great. Chopper is gonna have a fit…"

That was when he noticed the ground around him was covered with a shadow that couldn't be his. The first thing that struck him as very strange was that this shadow seemed to be ten times smaller than his usually was. Secondly, why was there a shadow? They had gone for about a week with out seeing a single one of their shadows from the lack of sunlight let through the thick cloud cover over head.

Now he looked up towards the night sky. The clouds that had up to a moment ago been blocking the sky were now missing. A full moon the color of liquid gold shimmered in a velvet night sky. To Usopp it was the most beautiful miracle he had ever seen. Now they could use a Coup de Burst and escape from the remaining prison of clouds that surrounded them still. He was still dreaming of freedom when he saw the shadow move.

His body stiffened to the likeliness of a board as shivers rocked his spine. 'Oh god, Usopp, why must you have the worst luck in this crew. Just pray Luffy is sleep walking.' So he summoned all his remaining courage he could muster and flipped around with his slingshot and a gunpowder star at the ready.

* * *

Hope you enjoy! I updated my profile, so once again if there's any Japanese words you need to look up check it out.

R&R please!


	4. The Kumo Kumo Fruit User

Here's the fourth chapter! Once more, the Japanese translations are in my profile. Please enjoy and R&R:)

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece. Lucky, Oda-sensei gets to own it.

* * *

Chapter 4: The Kumo-Kumo Fruit

"AHHHHH!" Usopp screamed when he saw the human figure behind him. He momentarily lost his battle position when he threw his hands into the air to surrender. But after his surprise was over with, his face turned into a hard frown. He brought down his weapon and tensed for battle again.

"Oi! We're under attack! Come on you guys, get up!"

The figure took a step closer to him. 'No, I always depend on the guys. I am a warrior of the sea, right? Well, prove it to yourself, Usopp. Heh, and then I'll be protecting those guys! I can't wait to see how much awe they'll be in from my awesome defense.' After pausing to chuckle happily to him self he thought, 'Time to result to the psychological attacks.'

"You had better stay back! I've got a fleet of 800 crew members!" When that didn't work and the stranger still advanced, he added, "And I'm the merciless 300 million beri captain! Captain Usopp!"

"Never heard of a Captain Usopp," replied the figure.

Usopp flinched at the raspy voice. 'Darn, he saw through my trick already!?' The figure with the raspy voice took a final step forward and reached the moonlight that was streaming down from the sky. He was now only about a yard away from Usopp.

Running out of options, Usopp raised his sling so the intruder could see he was armed.

"Heh, well if you wont listen to reason, I'll have to fight you," said Usopp and studied the intruder's exposed face. Then he stopped in his tracks and squinted his eyes. He squinted some more, as if it would help change the figure in front of him in something else. _Anything _else. The man stayed as he was, a small…grandpa?

"Wh-a-at the heck?" Usopp fell flat on his back at the sight of the tiny shriveled man in front of him. He was beyond old; this Ossan was ancient. Every inch of his skin looked like it had been soaked in warm water for hours. The skin on his face folded over in spots, especially near his eyes. It made them look like small slits in his face. He had a wispy mop of silvery hair on his head and a matching beard that fell to his knees. It caused him to look like a dwarfed Santa Claus, except instead he had hard cold eyes and no jolly about him. He also had bright red robes draped and covering his whole body. They seemed way to big for him and also seemed very worn, made a grayish red from extenuous use. He was about up to Usopp's waist, causing him to have to bend down to get a good look at him. If you were to look beyond his wrinkles, there was held an aura of wisdom. Obviously he had seen a lot in the decades he had been living.

Just as he began to think of a way to some how ease the Ossan off the ship, because of course he couldn't hurt an a hundred old geezer, with a thump, Luffy landed in front of him. 'Luffy! This was my shining moment.' Then he remembered calling them before. 'Darn it Usopp, next time don't be such a cry baby!' Obscuring his view of the little man, Luffy looked back and forth between the two people he had landed in between, and seemed to analyze the situation. After a moment, Luffy nodded and pointed to the old man.

"So, is this Ossan a friend of yours, Usopp?"

"No!" yelped Usopp at Luffy as he slapped his hand over his head. "For crying out loud! Luffy, I'm pointing a sling shot at him!" He pointed to the positions they were in. Even though he was a little mad at his captain for interrupting his battle, Usopp was glad he was here. Luffy always brought along comfort with him.

"Then why is there some strange old guy on our ship? _And,_why is he disrupting my sleep," growled Zoro as he rubbed his eyes.

"Well isn't this a nice greeting to your savior," retorted the Ossan. As his face turned to bitter sarcasm all his wrinkles shifted, drawing the eyes of all the crew members that had now come out do to all the commotion.

"Savior? Who said we need saving?" asked Sanji he did not like this guy. Usually he had very high respect for his elders, but this guy's presence annoyed him for some reason. He could tell that he was not here to help.

"Well, by the looks of things, you've been drifting out here, unable to escape, for about a week." The old man replied. Then, due to the expressions on all the crew member's faces that read, 'he's a stalker,' he added, "On my island, we have sensory devices and cameras to alert us when danger is near by."

"Whoa! So you live on Lost Island?" exclaimed Franky.

The old man nodded slowly.

"That is suuuper awesome! You're a survivor right? So can you tell us what's on the island that makes everyone disappear?"

"Disappear? What are you talking about young man?"

"What? Well you know, all the stories about how everyone that goes on the island never returns. There's got to be a reason right?"

"Not that I know of," said the old man.

"I was born on this island many years ago and learned to live on my own. Then every once in a while, a visitor would land here and then soon leave. But recently people have seen the beauty in this island and have been staying. It's as simple as that."

Once that small tale of his past soaked into all of the other's brains, it hit them.

"Whoa, hold on Ossan, so you lived here alone? Where were your parents?" asked Sanji.

"Well aren't you rude. Asking your elder questions left and right about their personal life," sniffed the ossan.

"Hey you-!" started Sanji, getting mad. Nami put a hand out in front of him.

"Don't start anything to get us in to trouble." She had a bad feeling about this guy. He seemed too suspicious. Why would he come to help a couple of complete strangers after a whole week of watching them? Plus, he was avoiding all their questions.

"Nami-san…" Sanji backed up at the serious expression on her face.

At that moment a peculiar thing happened, which only increased Nami's suspicions. After a moment of silence, where the crew and the Ossan just glared at each other, the old man closed his eyes as if he remembered something very vital to him. His face scrunched up even more, if that was even possible, and the crew looked on with confusion.

"Are you ok?" asked Chopper, taking step forward. But his eyes were drawn away from the concentrating Ossan to the sky. The small gap of freedom that they had so long awaited was quickly closing with more dark clouds. When the last piece of night sky had been sealed up with thick clouds, they turned to the old man with stiff backs. He was standing there with an innocent face.

"Heh, well, now we know how to get out of here," said Zoro, reaching for his swords.

"Thanks to you, Nami-san was almost thrown over board _and_all of our food was ruined," growled Sanji as his leg twitched.

Luffy cracked his knuckles and the others glared with glowing, menacing eyes.

Meanwhile, the poor old man was seriously intimidated as nine glowering figures towered over him.

"C-Chotto matte! Ha ha, can't we just talk about this like civilized people," he said with a nervous laugh.

"No!" shouted everyone, and they just drew closer to him. Just before they reached him, the old man let out a cry and fell to the floor. Chopper stopped.

"Oh no! We must have caused him too much stress," he exclaimed.

"Stop it!" he had to shout at Zoro and Sanji mercilessly continued for the crumpled figure.

"I'll be right back with my medical bag, so no one move!" With that said, Chopper dashed for the door to his room.

Now with Chopper gone there was a very awkward silence, where the others just stood around the body they had most likely given a heart attack. The silence was broken a after a few seconds when Luffy's stomach growled like an angered lion.

"Pst, Sanji!" he whispered.

"How can you talk about food at a time like this!" Sanji yelled back. Then the quiet returned.

"Okay, everyone back up a bit." Chopper was running back. He walked up to the old man and placed down his medical bag. But as he reached his silver stethoscope towards his chest, he was suddenly blinded in a thick mist.

At a safe distance away the others could see that a thick cloudlike substance had shot out of the man's hands like a faucet. Then like a snake, it wrapped its self around Chopper. In an instant Chopper was no longer visible.

"Chopper!" shouted Nami, but the clouds kept coming closer and closer to them.

"Everybody run!" And so they did.

"What the heck was that?!" shouted Franky.

"How should I know!" replied Sanji.

"They were clouds," said Nami, as she ran ahead of them towards the other side of the lawn deck.

"Come on, let's get inside some where! Even clouds can't go through walls!"

"You're slowing me down Usopp!" Zoro yelled at Usopp who was clinging to his back while screaming at the white-gray mass behind him.

"Well hurry! I'm the last one, and the clouds are right behind me!" he screamed.

Just as Zoro sped up, the cloud reached out and snaked its way around Usopp's ankle.

"Noooo!" cried Usopp as he fell, and was slowly dragged back towards Chopper and the old man, who was now standing with his palms out. The clouds were shooting out of them like a lasso. His face contained a wicked grin for an elder like him.

Usopp dug his nails into the ground, trying to slow himself but only managed to make ugly dirt lines in the green grass. 'How can I let this happen?' he thought. 'Didn't I just promise my self to fight this guy like man? And here I am, getting dragged back after running away. A coward.' It could have been the word 'coward' that continued to echo in his head, or how close he was getting dragged to his death, or both, but Usopp stopped struggling. He shot back, rapidly approaching the Ossan, and he dug through his pocket. When he took out his hand, he held an odd, gold mask. 'Give me strength, Sogeking!' he prayed, and put on the mask to become his alter ego.

There was a moment where nothing happened, except Luffy and the others turning back in shock.

"Usopp!"

"No, Usopp! Stop it you crazy geezer!"

"Ha! It's no use! I ate the Kumo Kumo fruit. I can create and control clouds at will."

Then Usopp lifted his head.

"I, Sogeking, will defeat you for Usopp's nakama!" said Usopp, or Sogeking. His mask shone even though there was no light.

The Ossan, along with everyone in the remaining crew, but Luffy, gaped at Usopp. 'Are you kidding me?' They all thought with exasperated sweat drops going down the sides of their faces. Whereas Luffy, still not realizing that it was still Usopp, not the superhero, Sogeking, had his mouth open in awe.

"Sogeking! Wow you're here to save the day again? But where did Usopp go?" he asked.

"Do you seriously not see that it's still Usopp?" asked everyone else in amazement at just how clueless Luffy was.

Back to Usopp, he had drawn out a much bigger and longer sling shot that belonged to Sogeking called Kabuto. It had dials in the sling, and at the moment, it contained a flame dial.

"Get ready, old man! You're no match against Kabuto!" he shouted in a fake, deep voice, and the old man snapped back to attention.

Usopp pulled back on the sling and prepared to fire. After a moment he locked on his small target.

"Hi no Tori Boshi!" he screamed, releasing a massive firery inferno from the dial in his slingshot. As it moved to the old man, it became a firery shaped pheonix.

The old man's eyes widened as he was consumed in the shot.

* * *

**I shall work to my greatest potentail to get chapter five out as soon as possible! I promise you all, as a saga I am aiming to get in a lot more adventure ahead! Full sail ahead crew:D!**


	5. The Fierce Battle and the Neck Marking

Sorry that chapter five took so long. This was going to be two separate chapters so you're going to see that it's definetly longer than my previous chapters. I hope you enjoy and **please R&R! XD**

Oda sensei owns One Piece, not me... :(

**Chapter Five: A Fierce Battle and the Neck Marking**

The crew had stopped completely and now all of them were turned around watching the old man, who was back to a shadowed figure in the bright flames. Usopp, or Sogeking, still had Kabuto pointed at the Ossan. He had he done it? The flames continued to roar high to the heavens for about another minute before they started to die. Finally, the final tiny flame blew out. Then it was just the charred and blackened old man.

He was still standing, when a breeze went by and blew a long trail of smoke drifting off his skin, which was now just as black as it was wrinckled. Usopp couldn't believe it didn't work and his stomach crashed, but then the enemy's legs began to shake and he colapsed with a thump. There was a long, drawn out silence where everyone continued to stare.

Usopp lowered Kabuto. 'Oh my god, did I just kill an a hundred year old man?! Stupid Usopp! Wait, but I _did_ protect my nakama.' He turned back and saw their shocked expressions. 'Yes! I've got my bragging rights!…No, are you kidding me? I'm I actually thinking about showing off murding my elders? …But he was a threat!' These positive and negative thoughts all zoomed about in Usopp's mind like a hurricain on what he had just done.

Then Luffy interrupted the silence.

"Sogeking!" he shouted. "Y-you're…."

Usopp held his breath. What was he going to say? Nice job, or how cruel he was?

"You're super COOL!" he finished, as he grinned with awe.

Usopp sighed in his head. 'Looks like he has no respect for his elders. It's no wonder he gets beat up by Garp.'

"If only Usopp was here to see how awesome his friend is…" drifted Luffy in thought.

"Luffy…can you _really_ not tell?" mumbled Nami, and the others nodded.

"Tell what?"

Nami sighed, "Never mind."

"Thank you Luffy-kun," said Usopp in his deep, Sogeking voice.

Now Zoro wondered out loud, "So now what? We've got a dead old guy on our ship."

"Geeze, Marimo, you've got a good way of putting that in words," grumbled Sanji. Zoro twitched, but didn't reply.

The crew pondered the situation anyway, because they _were_ in quite the predicament.

After a moment, Robin asked, "If I can make a suggestion, I would think that we should ask Doctor-san to take a look at the man. That way, we can see if we really do have 'a dead old guy on our ship,'" she said, using Zoro's words.

"The lady has a point," said Franky.

"Alright then, lets get Chopper," said Sanji.

They turned to the charred scene to find their poor doctor. Next to the Ossan, they found Chopper. Well, they found a gray mass that contained him.

"Chopper!" Luffy ran to him.

Usopp saw Luffy run by him and continued to hear the flip of his sandals running behind him. He tried to get up too, but his legs were still connected to the corpse he made by the cloud lasso. 'What? I'm still caught?' He glanced at the cloud cage around the ship and the island too, and saw that it too was still standing around them. 'But, why?' he thought. 'Didn't I defeat the controller?'

Robin was having similar thoughts. 'Hmm, that's strange. If the old man were down, then wouldn't his clouds be gone too? He wouldn't have the strength to control them any more.' Suddenly it hit Robin.

"Chotto matte, Captain-san!" she shouted. Luffy had almost reached Chopper.

"Robin? What's wrong?" asked Nami.

"He is not done yet," she replied with worry.

"What? How do you know?"

But, there was no need to explain, because at that moment there was a stir from the black body on the lawn deck. The old man leapt up, and the strings of cloud connected to Usopp fell like they had been cut. They hit the ground and stuck there like glue, just as Luffy reached Chopper.

"What the-" Luffy crashed straight into the Ossan and before he fell, he was grabbed by the wrists, now that his hands were free. The old man took Luffy's wrists and had a stream of cloud spin around them, making a makeshift set of cloud handcuffs, all within less than two seconds. Luffy had no time to react, but when the damage was already done and the old man finished binding his legs, Luffy was on the ground.

"Luffy! No way he took out Luffy!" Usopp was shouting as one of his last hopes was trapped like a fly in this guy's trap.

Meanwhile Luffy was looking at his wrists.

"Ohh, these are very strong!" he said, flexing his hands, and unable to hardly move them.

"Oi! Luffy don't admire him! Take him out!" yelled Sanji as he watched Luffy smile at the cuffs.

"Oh, yeah!" He turned to the old man and felt odd looking up at someone so much smaller than him. "Hey, your gonna pay for what you did to Chopper, you Prune* Ossan!"

"What did you call me?" the Ossan asked in anger.

"There he goes with the weird nicknames," said Zoro.

The 'Prune Ossan' put out his hands again, ready to take down the kid who just insulted him, and Luffy pulled back his head, the only other thing that wasn't tied up. His neck stretched to the top of the crow's nest, carrying his head so far that it was just a speck in the sky.

The enemy stopped his attack to watch with utter horror as Luffy's neck kept stretching.

"What _is_ that?!" he gasped at the apparently non-human prey in front of him.

"Heh, that's our captain," said Nami. "He ate the Gomu Gomu no mi, so he's a rubber man. He's also a 300 million beri captain." She smiled at the horror she inflicted on the old man's face.

The old man glanced at Usopp, who was trying to hide his face. '300 million captain, eh.'

"So that's whom my fruit went to," he whispered, so no one could hear, and gazed warily at Luffy. Even if someone on that ship had heard this fact he had just let loose, they wouldn't have been able to comprehend what he meant.

"That won't work on me, Young man!" he shouted up to Luffy's head.

Luffy ignored him and smiled a giant smile.

"Then lets see you dodge this!" he screamed back.

He released his head, which shot forward like a bullet. The crew was only seeing the black blur of Luffy's hair and a straw hat that trailed behind it, which gained speed as it flew towards the Ossan. The Ossan wasn't moving. He let out a small laugh and stuck out his palms.

"Kumo Kumo javelin!" he cried. A long blob of cloud shot from his hand. It began to move and shape into a very sharp, pointed stick at a rapid pace, but Luffy's head was coming just as fast. Everyone held their breath at this battle of speed. So much was happening in such a small amount of time, that they couldn't keep up.

Luffy saw the old man speeding closer and closer, but just as he was about to reach him, he spotted the thin, gray cloud that the old man held, sharpened into a needle thin point. Knowing that sharp objects were number one on his do-not go-near-list, next to water, he did the only thing he could do. At the last second, he pushed his head slightly to the left, avoiding the lethal cloud, but in an explosion of dust and wood, Luffy's head smashed straight though the side of the Thousand Sunny.

"Ah! Luffy!" Nami shouted.

"Sunny!" exclaimed Franky.

Everyone had their mouths open horror. Robin was the only one ready to react as the old man released Luffy's arms and his body was dragged off the ship after his head, making an even bigger hole to Franky's despair. Growing arms out of the side of the ship, Robin formed a chain of hands that grabbed Luffy before he fell into the drink. The hand chain swung Luffy back up in the deck, where he lay panting.

"Are you ok, captain-san?" asked Robin.

"Yeah," said Luffy, still down. "Thanks Robin. Wari, Franky!"

His hands were still bound as well as his legs with the strange cloud he was unable to break. So he sat up instead.

"Oi, Ossan." He said. He looked up with a hard face and his mouth twisted into a frown. He was mad now.

"Let my friends go." He said with a warning tone.

"Why should I? Why don't you just take them back?" he replied. "All you young people who come here are exactly the same…" he trailed off with an exasperated sigh.

"What's that suppose to mean?" Luffy cocked his head.

"You think life is so simple. All you young pirates go around with your nakama, thinking nothing can ever inflict danger or sadness on your lives. You think you'll always have nakama to be with you, when in fact, you're all wrong!" His voice rose to a yell as he continued through this burst of emotions.

The crew stood silently in surprise for a moment. This man was old and wise, but he had almost a child like sense to him. Like an abused child that was still suffering, trapped in an old body, unable to escape. Each one of them thought back to their adventures they had gone through. How could they forget? They were each too proud to admit it, but they couldn't live on with out their nakama. A strong bond had formed between the Strawhat crew that could never be broken. It was almost like the family that many of them never had experienced before. It was not how the old man had described. They were well aware at how easily this 'family' could be destroyed, but they accepted it and instead, worked hard to protect it; this bond they shared.

Luffy spoke up. "That may be true for some pirates, but Ossan, it seems you haven't met the Strawhat pirates yet." The others smiled. Sometimes, well, at least when he wanted to be, they had a very good captain. This small and brief speech almost acted as a signal, for then the crew began to move.

"Yup, that's right. If you don't feel like your joints can handle it, we'll take our nakama back for you," said Nami, taking out her blue baton, the Clima-Tact, courtesy of Usopp.

"I'm feeling pretty super this week, so you had better look out, Gramps." Franky stepped up beside Nami and Robin, next to his captain.

Zoro appeared in the group against the Ossan with his three swords out; one in his mouth and the other two in each hand, they glistened dangerously.

"I hate to turn elders into mince meat, but looks like I've got no choice." Sanji stood in between Nami and Robin.

When Brook joined, and gracefully slid out his sword from his cane, the old man looked at this silly group and shook his head.

"Looks like this crew is one that can't be reasoned with."

"That's right," said Luffy. "Now we're getting our nakama back!" He brought up his cuffed hands and stuck his thumb in his mouth and bit down on it. It looked like he was sucking his thumb and the old man just stood there in silence not knowing what to think of it. But that was when he blew a hard breath on it and his hand began to swell. The old man looked horrified, and this time wasn't acting, as Luffy's hand expanded like a balloon. In a few seconds, the old man was covered in the shadow of an enormous shadow. Luffy now had a hand the size of a small elephant. It looked odd against his still normal sized body, his arm looked like it was just connected to a large, skin colored boulder instead of it being connected to him.

"Gear Third," he said strong and clearly. The cloud cuffs that had been on his hands had been ripped apart, unable to contain such a large mass. The cuff's creator couldn't believe his eyes.

'I thought I knew everything about the Gomu Gomu no mi.' he thought, as his mind whirled. 'I have know idea what this is! How?!…But it makes sense! Using his rubber skin as well as bones, he is able to expand them. I never could have imagined it could be used like this. He must have quite the imagination…' His words still make no sense. How does he know so much about Luffy's powers?

Back to the crew, Luffy was freed from his shackles and was now trying to hold his arm in such a way as not to hit the others.

"Waaa! Luffy you're going to crush me!" Usopp was screaming.

"Huh, oh! Usopp! When did you get here?" Luffy noticed that Usopp took off his mask and placed it in his tan bag. He swung his body to see Usopp, and his arm swished over Zoro and Sanji's heads. They ducked simultaneously and got up simultaneously.

"Watch it Luffy!" They shouted at the same time once again, and then glared at each other.

The old man looked at the kids in front of him jumping and yelling in sudden chaos. 'Where'd that team work go so fast…?' A sweat drop went down the side of his face.

After a few minutes of the crew trying to get Luffy's arm in the direction of the old man and the man himself standing there, getting more and more sweat drops, the fight began.

"Here we go, Prune Guy!" said Luffy. The others questioned where he got these nicknames, and his arm shot out. It went right to the old man. The Ossan didn't know why, but the blue haired crewmember with the large arms ran along side it. He waited until it was right in front of his face, and dodged with breakneck speed. He felt the wind rush by his face from the sheer force of the punch as it slammed into the side of the deck.

"I hate to break it to you kids, but if you planning on fighting me like that, then you're going to destroy your ship."

The crew lost sight of the old man, because he moved with such speed that he appeared to materialize suddenly above them on the mast.

"Suge! His fast!" said Luffy who was now the size of a baby; the one side affect of Gear Third.

"Aren't you done admiring him _yet?!_"

"But, you don't need to worry about the ship," came a voice behind Luffy's hand. Franky walked out from behind it. "At least while _I'm_ here." He had blocked the blow from hurting Sunny with his metal hands.

The old man let out a "Tsk" and evaporated again. He was moving behind them for a surprise attack on the captain. He was the biggest threat in his eyes. They looked around, unable to find him, and at his speed, they seemed to do so in slow motion. He was closing in on the red vest until there was a green blur in front of his winded vision. He was stopped short when the swords man with three swords blocked him. He just barely avoided the slash of his swords, and a small piece of the red shawls he wore was torn off.

"Sorry, but I'm going to have to be your opponent," said Zoro.

The old man reacted fast again. "Kumo Kumo Swords!"

He now had a gray copy of Zoro's three swords. Zoro's eyes widened very slightly, but he immediately regained control of himself. The two fighters both swung back their weapons; one's glinting at the point, and the other's turning a darker gray. Then they brought their swords together with a clash. It was a fierce duel, with a blur of swords slashing in every direction at the other's target. The other always parried or swiftly ducked and jumped out of the way. Zoro found it difficult to swing at someone so small, and had to crouch low to land a hit. The opponent lightly jumped a few feet in the air, rising up to meet him and swung down his swords with the strength of a bull.

The others at stand by, not knowing when to jump in, just looked in amazement at how athletic the fragile looking person was.

Luffy pointed, "He's one weird guy, isn't he?" He was now back to normal size.

"I agree," said Brook, the closest one to him, simply.

Back to Zoro, who was realizing that this fight was going nowhere, and who was extremely irritated that he couldn't beat someone a hundred years older than him. He bent with his mouth sword pointing out and tried going for the old mans legs. He was blocked of course, but continued to push with his sword, until he flung the small body into the air. Dashing at the speed of light, he disappeared and reappeared a few yards above the old man.

"Nito-Ryu," he said with clenched teeth around his sword, so it came out kind of funny. He pulled back the two swords in his hands and swung them forward with so much force, they blasted a cutting blade of wind at the Ossan that was so strong it was almost visible. "Takanami!"

It hit the man squarely in the chest and blasted him into the ground so hard, that it made a smoking hole in the deck. The hole smoked for another few second and the old man was revealed. He was unharmed and standing, a blanket of clouds below his feet that had shielded him from breaking his body on the impact of the ship.

Franky groaned and Zoro was staring at the old guy.

"Geeze, what's with him!? Nothing works!"

"Yeah, yeah. Can we take this fight somewhere else though? I don't want Sunny to end up like your Merry did," said Franky, and Usopp nodded in agreement.

"Zoro-san, please let me handle this," said Brook, stepping up. He unsheathed his thin sword and shot towards the old man. He collided with him and Zoro moved out of the way and both of them few off the ship. They were both hammers, but Brook safely ran his thin legs until they were a blur. A shot of the rainbow water flew behind him as he literally ran on water. He looked back.

"Yo ho ho ho ho!" he thought he had won, but his opponent had made a cloud that he was hovering on, like a gray magic carpet.

"Oh, it seems the opponent is much more dangerous than we thought," he said, as he scrambled about the 'water.'

On the ship, the others were thinking of a plan, while, in the background, Brook was wildly zipping along with the cloud carpet.

"Alright team! We work together! If we hit all at once, one attack is bound to land!" said Usopp. He was still on the ground and everyone was huddled in a circle a few yards away, not hearing him.

"Heyyy, I'm over here!" He flailed his arms and then gave up and just sprawled on the ground with a 'humph.'

"Ok, Franky, you're going to attack with Luffy from each side. While you do that, I'm going to use a Thunderbolt Tempo from above," explained Nami. "Sanji-kun. Where do you want to jump in?"

"Hai, Nami-san, I'll go anywhere you wish me to go!" he said in a sickly sweet, but caring voice.

"He'll come with me from the back and front," said Zoro for him.

"What! Who said you decided, crappy swordsman?" he said back, twirling around.

"I just want to show you once and for all that I'm _waayy_ stronger than you, idiot cook!" retorted Zoro with a smirk.

"All right. So, while we all go to our assigned positions, Robin will be holding him down with her hands," finished Nami, while the cook and swordsman were head to head behind her. There was a murmur of agreement.

"YEAH! LETS GO!" yelled Luffy, who began to run to the end of the ship. Nami held on to his ear, which stretched until he snapped back.

"Wait Luffy. We need to plan this out carefully."

"Ohhh! I get it! So, Sanji, lets get something to eat first!"

"No! Get your butt out there!" Sanji yelled, kicking him clean out of the boat.

"Arggg! Come on you guys!" said Nami, pulling her hair in frustration. Then she sighed, seeing Luffy wailing off into the distance. He began to stretch his hand out to the ship.

Giving up, she just commanded, "Oh, whatever. OK, EVERYBODY MOVE OUT!"

Brook was scrambling away from the small cloud needles that were shooting out of the old man's ride. He glanced at the ship again, hoping for back up. He saw the others behind the Ossan, coming to his rescue in the Mini Merry boat. The crew was in action. Before they left, they had told Usopp to try to pry poor Chopper out of his prison. They left the two and Robin on the ship. Chopper lay in his little cocoon out on the ground in front of them. Robin and Usopp began to frantically claw at the gluey substance.

"Hang in there, Chopper!" Usopp got no reply from Chopper himself.

"Don't worry Long Nose-kun, doctor-san is strong!" Then Robin paused for a moment and crossed her arms.

"Clutch!" she said, and four arms sprouted from the old man and twisted back his back with a crack.

"Ohh!" he cried when his back snapped. "Don't you know the back is an old man's source of life!?"

He had no time to complain, when he saw the orange haired girl above him with her blue baton. He tried to move his hands up, but the raven-haired girl was using her hands to hold them down. 'The Hana Hana no mi!' He was surprised at how many had his devil fruits in this crew. 'Then the skeleton one must have the Yomi Yomi no mi… He ha ha, who would have thought one could end up like that! The poor soul must have lost his body.' But they couldn't use his own fruits against him, he thought. He knew their weaknesses just as much as their abilities.

Behind him, he saw the swordsman with three swords at the ready. In front of him there was the man in the black suit with his leg out in a position designed to kick him. Then on each side of him were the captain and the blue haired, Speedo guy. The gomu gomu fruit user was swinging from the ship and shot himself at him, by using what he shouted as, "Gomu Gomu no Rocket!" The others were on the small paddleboat with the smiling ram's head and had jumped towards him.

Then they all unleashed their attacks at once. Three swords, a black flash of the cook's leg, a hand on a chain coming from the blue haired guy, a bolt of lightning, and a hand stretching towards him. He was blocked by all sides and above, so the only way out was below. But would he make it? The attacks rushed closer and closer and BAM! They collided in the middle where the Ossan was. There was a burst of purplish light and a rush of fiery wind that reached even the distant edges of Sunny. Together, the power of the Strawhat crew was horribly frightening to behold.

The old man evaporated his cloud at the last second and dropped out of the way of the full blow. But, even he couldn't escape the explosion and he fell into the mystery water with a subtle splash. As for the crew, they joined in the middle as they fell and were all caught by Luffy and Robin who pulled them back to the Mini Merry. The bad part about this was that the Mini Merry was made for only three people at a time, not six.

"Oh come on! Move over you guys!" said Franky who was crushed at the way bottom of the little boat.

"Mellorine~!" said Sanji who was squashed up next to Nami.

Brook had his legs sticking out in odd directions, and the others obscured the rest of his body.

Luffy was the only one with the most room. He was draped over the ram head in front, his old favorite spot on the Merry Go. It was a bit too small, but he was able to fit most of his body on it without touching the water.

"YEAH! We did it," he said happily. They had won and the others whooped in joy with him.

But Luffy was distracted then, by the rainbow water, inches away from his face. It was so pretty with its rainbow color and golden glow. He was so tempted to touch it, but remembered Nami telling him not to. But, of course, being Luffy, he was unable to resist and reached out his hand to take a quick poke at it.

Just as he was about to reach it, there was a ripple that appeared in the water.

"Wow! What's that?"

Everyone looked over at Luffy who was staring at the object coming out of the mystery water. When it surfaced from the water, it was a gray cocoon of cloud, similar to the one that held Chopper.

"Dang it! Why won't he give up!" said Franky. They knew the cloud that surfaced next to their boat was the old man.

"He closed himself in cloud so he wouldn't get touched by the water!"

They steered the boat away from the blob of cloud as fast as they could. Everyone scrambled around, trying to disentangle them selves, when something poked out the top of the cloud ball. A hand ripped out the top and it shot a cloud rope straight at Luffy. It tangled around his neck and dragged him off the boat.

"Luffy!" They shouted as their captain was dragged under the water with the cloud in less than a second

"Someone has to jump in! He can't swim!" said Nami. She stopped Brook who was about to jump over the edge. "Someone without a devil fruit."

So Sanji ended up taking off his black coat, ready to save his captain.

But there was no need to, because just as fast as they had submerged, they resurfaced and floated up into the air on another floating cloud. Rainbow liquid ran off them like small water falls.

"Ah! Luffy are you ok?!"

Luffy was definitely not ok. His tongue was hanging out of his mouth and his eyelids were drooped like he hadn't slept in months. He was wrapped up in cloud, only his head and neck revealed. The old man had him at his feet and he had a wicked grin on his face.

"Oi! You crap head! What did you do to him?" shouted Sanji. He stopped along with the others then as they looked at Luffy's neck. There was a strange marking there that wasn't there before. It looked like a black tattoo of a curling serpent that snaked around the full length of his neck.

"I simply did to him what I'm going to do to every one of you next," growled the Ossan.

* * *

*Prune as in a dryed prune. Have you ever seen a dryed prune? Because if you have, they are very wrinckled.

Did you like it? I hope you did! I hope to have chapter six out soon! Once again please R&R! XD


	6. Chopper Returns! The Kumo Fruit Analyzed

**UPDATE STATS: Due to mid term exams I will be a lot slower in my updates because I' m TIRED and am WAY OVER MY HEAD WITH STUDYING!XO In a few weeks I'll be back with a lot of updates though.**

**A merry Christmas to you all! Thank you very much for reading my story until now! I think this year has been one of my best, I mean, I discovered just how much I like to write and all you readers make me feel just awesome!XD Whoo hoo, 2010!**

**Alright, first I thought I would bring up a few points I forgot to mention.(Better late than never)**

**.This story takes place after the Thriller Bark Arc. So if you're not completely up to date on the story, then SPOILER ALERT!**

**.I realised that I completely forgot to describe the old man in previous chapters so I added it in. If you don't want to go back to chapter four and read it, then here it is:**

-He has a long silver beard

-Icy gray eyes

-Silver hair

-Wearing long red robes

-He is pretty sensitive about his age... but he tries his best to hide it! XD

**.I also may change the genere of the story to slight romance... for future reference. So with out furture a do, please continue on to the story! XD Please read it and see what you think! Please feel free to share what you think and review at the end!**

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that has to do with One Piece... XO

* * *

**Chapter Six: Chopper Returns, and the Kumo-Kumo Fruit is Analyzed **

Robin and Usopp were not getting very far with releasing Chopper. The cloud was soft and fluffy, like cotton, but it stuck together like it was woven with iron. It was almost impossible to get off. At one point, they came very close. Robin was using the force of six hands at once and was able to pry open the cloud an inch to reveal a patch of Chopper's brown fur. Unfortunately, the cloud seemed to have a will of its own and it sealed back up against Robin's will.

"This is hopeless…" murmured Usopp in frustration. "Chopper isn't moving at all! What if he…" He didn't finish the thought and gulped.

"Long-Nose –kun," said Robin sternly. "Would Doctor-san just leave his nakama like that?"

Usopp looked at Robin with gratefulness for her calming aura. "No, of course he wouldn't. You're right."

And so they continued to dig and claw to get to Chopper with much more vigor. As they dug, they heard a series of loud bangs and shouts from behind them, out on the mystery water. These sounds continued and made the two restless as they worked.

"Robin…" Began Usopp, as he tugged on a particularly tough piece of cloud. "You believe in this crew right?"

"Mm. I do."

"Then what if, well, what I'm getting at is what the old man said earlier. You know, about losing your nakama." Robin continued to listen in silence. Usopp was glad to have someone like Robin onboard. She always listened when you needed her to.

"There's just something about that creepy old guy, I mean he is definitely weird, but," he stopped struggling with the cloud. "What if…what if we some day we just don't win? No one can survive everything. Luffy and the others go on like nothing can stop or separate us and they have a good reason to think so. You guys are so strong; you _can_ protect each other, but I'm…" Usopp's face was in shadows and Robin listened, knowing what was coming next.

"I'm no help to this crew!" cried out Usopp in despair. "I got beat by and old man!" he said tugging at his leg, which was still fastened to the ground.

"Yes, that is quite sad." said Robin with a slight smile. Usopp collapsed on the ground.

"Robin…"

"But, I used to think the same thing, until recently."

Usopp dragged himself off the floor. "Until, Enies Lobby, right?"

"Mm. Before then, I wasn't used to nakama like all of you before. All the people I worked with were constantly trying to kill me or turn me into the Marines. So, I tried to desperately to do what I though was a true act of a nakama, by sacrificing my life for you all. After all, before, my 'nakama' would have gladly liked that; they always secretly wanted me gone." Robin grimly smiled and Usopp listened intently with surprise. Robin had never shared this much of herself before.

"But, then you all showed me what it meant to be a true nakama. You all came to save me, even though you knew Enies Lobby was almost impossible to escape from. You persevered though all the obstacles and focused only on your nakama in distress. That is what true power is. True power is to be able to express love. Some pirates out there have no companionship for their shipmates." She stared at one of the cloud walls, apparently thinking about the deep ocean blue beyond. "They consider their nakama nothing more than someone to hide behind when they find danger… Now the Strawhat Pirates, they have a strong bond that normal pirates don't. Captain-san, Mr. Swordsman, and Cook-san, they may not seem the type, but they care very much for their nakama, which is what gives them the courage to fight the way they do."

Usopp was just staring at Robin with his mouth open.

"Oh, did I say too much?"

Snapping out of his amazed state, Usopp hurriedly said, "No, no! I'm just shocked Robin! That was the greatest speech I ever heard!" Usopp wasn't lying, he felt completely energized and ready to fight. He would protect his nakama, and with true power. He reached for Chopper and grabbed two fists full of fluffy cloud, the texture of cotton candy.

"Yeah! I'm getting you out of there Chopper!" He pulled with all his strength and Robin knew not to help him. He needed to prove to himself that he did have power. She quietly crouched next to him.

He stopped pulling after a few moments, the muscles in his arms burning in protest. 'Think, Usopp! Chopper needs you!' His face, which had been scrunched up in concentration, lit up as it occurred to him. 'After I shot him with fire…he let me go and attached the cloud to the ground. It seemed like it was in order for him to be able to move around when he fought, but…it could be that the cloud was weakened so he reattached it to something else!'

"It's just a guess, but…" Usopp dug in his pocket. His groping fingers finding what they were searching for, he pulled out the brightly colored shell. A flame dial.

"Take this, cloud! Fire is your one weakness!" He pressed a small, loose part at the tip of the shell. It seemed like a button and when pressed, it shot out a blast of yellow, hot flames. The fire enveloped Chopper and baked him for a few seconds. The fire started to get put out from the moisture of the clouds and the heat from the fire began to evaporate the clouds in return, causing a plume of steam to rise from them. But, the flames were unlimited from the dial and the cloud had no back up to put out the blasting heat. Then the gray clouds seemed to piece apart and drift into the air like tufts of dust.

"It works! HA, I knew it could do it the whole time!" While Usopp was laughing and bowing to an invisible audience, Robin, who was used to it, watched Chopper slowly come into shape.

The fire came to a stop and Usopp put the shell back in his pocket. They stood over Chopper. All the clouds up to his head were all gone, having disintegrated into mist that drifted to the heavens. Apparently aware that he could move his body again, Chopper's legs and arms began to twitch. Robin took this as a signal, and helped him to his feet. He began to tip over again, the weight on his head to great for his tiny body. While Robin held their doctor up, Usopp ripped off the remaining cloud on his head that was now easy to rip apart.

"Doctor-san! Are you Ok?" Robin softly asked. Chopper's blue nose was twitching, obviously happy to be free. He shook his head back and forth, gasping.

"What happened?" He saw Robin and Usopp and their relieved faces.

"I saw the burned man and reached him and then…" He looked around in bewilderment. "Everything went white. It felt like a thick mist moved in. It was weird because I couldn't smell anything and I couldn't yell, but I could still breath…"

"Well, we're just happy you're Ok."

"Robin," Chopper's eyes swam with tears.

"But, you should thank Long-Nose-kun. He found out how to free you," Said Robin.

"Ahh! Usopp did?" They turned to Usopp. Chopper face was shining with awe and Robin held a smug smile.

"Ah ha ha, yeah you bet I did!" Usopp said scratching his head and he laughed at an attempt to be modest.

"Thanks Usopp! You're so awesome! But what do you mean 'free me'?" asked Chopper. "Where's everyone else? Oh! And the old man! I need to heal him!" He looked around and saw no one on the ship. The other two looked at him awkwardly.

"Um, Chopper, turns out the old guy was an insane wacko who is trying to kill us. So, the others are out there beating him up." Said Usopp with much talent at explaining the situation to Chopper whose eyes widened.

The shouts and bangs became suddenly louder from behind them and the three of them got up and ran to the edge of the ship.

The looked out to the battle on the water. Their nakama were standing in the small Mini Merry boat and seemed on the defense. What shocked them was that in the mist, there were only three silhouettes of people on board the tiny ship. All around the boat there were many disturbed spots in the water, causing it to turn violently around them. It still had its rainbow glow, making it look like a gold mist rested over it.

"Wait, why are there only three people there!" shouted Usopp, fear tinting his voice.

"I can't even see who they are," added Chopper, just as scared.

Don't worry, let me just see." Robin closed her eyes in concentration.

On the Mini Merry there sprouted three sets of eyes in the white painted wood, which made the sides of the inside of the boat. They blinked and swiveled around, looking at the scene. The mist was slowly rolling in thicker and everything was gold and brown. The eyes spotted three sets of the brown tinted shadows of feet. The moved slightly every once in a while, the people whom they belonged to were obviously looking around them. It was hard to see, but Robin's eyes saw they were a pair of high heels, a dark pair of boots, and bare feet. Soon even those were lost, as the mist turned to a deep fog. It was so thick that she could each separate particle floating in the air like a bright, glowing firefly. It was no use, she couldn't see anymore. The eyes disappeared in a poof.

Back on Sunny, Robin opened her eyes. The fog had consumed the ship too.

"Doctor-san, Long-Nose-kun!" She groped for them, unable to see. She bumped into them not to far away. Usopp was holding on to Chopper's horns so as not to get lost, and Robin did the same.

"Robin! What's going on out there!" They were both freaked out by the strange fog. Chopper was trying to hide behind Usopp's legs and Usopp was trying to hide behind Chopper, which didn't work out.

"It's Nami, Zoro, and Franky that are on the boat. I didn't see anyone else…"

Chopper and Usopp stared at Robin, to their best ability. She seemed to only address their real names when she was very worried, which meant whatever she had seen was not good.

"W-what happened to Luffy, Sanji, and Brook?" Chopper whispered in the eerie silence that followed. There was no reply besides the groaning and creaking of the ship beneath their feet. They couldn't even hear the fight any more. It seemed like noise was just as impossible as vision in this golden air.

After a few more minutes of torturous listening for any hint of what was happening, Usopp clutched his head.

"Argg! We can just sit here, so I'm going to help them!"

"No, Usopp! You'll get lost in this." Chopper waved his hove through the air, churning the thick, molasses-like air.

"Hey, I have a better sense of direction than a hawk!"

"Do hawks have a good sense of direction?" asked Chopper.

Usopp was silent for a moment.

"That's not the point. We have to help the others."

While Chopper and Usopp argued on whether or not it was safe to take a step further, Robin was logically thinking this through.

The mist from the strange water was the main problem. She needed to make the mist blow away, like big fan… There was no way she was going to get a giant fan in time.

"No, no, no Chopper. You need to think this through carefully. It's obvious that we need to go through with my plan."

"But, Usopp, how are you going to aim your 'Usopp Ahhahhhahhhh' if you can't see."

Usopp sighed. "Chopper you should know that nothing is impossible for Usopp!" He was enjoying himself saving Chopper a bit too much, but Robin observed the motion he made with his hand. He flicked his wrist at Chopper with an up-down motion that steered the thick air.

That gave her an idea.

"I think we can get to them," began Robin.

The other two stopped talking and turned from facing each other to her. "Really?!"

Robin nodded and crossed her arms. She took a quick breath before unleashing a new move.

"Vingt* Fleur Wind!" Twenty arms sprouted out of her hands and they formed a large mass shaped like a pinwheel. Almost immediately, they began to rotate like a giant fan. The gold fog resisted this movement, causing the arms to spin slowly as if they were in soup, but soon, as they gained momentum, starting to speed to a blur. The fan of arms blew a huge wind as if there were a hurricane near by and the fog was pushed away in large, golden waves. The wind still couldn't blow all the fog away, but it gave them a visual from at least a five-yard radius.

"Robin, that's perfect!" admired Chopper, as he held on to his blowing hat. Usopp was staring at the spinning blur of arms with his eyes popping.

"Umm, so, it looks like we moved to the other side of the ship in the fog," said Usopp, who quickly collected himself, looking around, now able to see where they were.

"Now all we have to do is get to the other side, Robin can blow the mist away and I'll use my 'Usopp AhhhhAhhhhahh' to get us to the others. Robin and Chopper nodded in agreement and the rescue team moved out.

They reached the edge of the ship and stood looking out on to the water. Even with Robin, they could still only see a vague outline of the ship. Usopp gulped and his legs began to shake, but he forcibly tried to stop them when Chopper gave him an inquiring look. Chopper, along with Robin, were clinging on to him by the waist on either side. He was in the middle with his hands on a belt-like invention he made called the 'Usopp Ahhahhahah!' He had a finger on the small red button that would release a rope with a grappling hook on the end.

He built up a small amount of self confidence and with a few last words, 'to nakama,' he let the rope shoot out and hook on to the boat in the distance. With a testing tug, which responded with a tight resistance, he jumped off the side on the Thousand Sunny, dragging the other two with him, into the murky depths beyond.

* * *

_Back to the battle on the water…(While Chopper is getting released)_

Back on the Mini Merry, while Usopp and Robin had been still trying to release Chopper, the rest of the Strawhat crew was facing the old man with searing anger as he placed his foot on their captain at his feet.

"How are you even physically able to do that! How could someone like you beat Luffy!" cried Sanji.

When he said those words, a vein pulsed in the old man's forehead and his face darkened.

"Who said I need anyone's help! I'm healthy as a horse!" he spat at Sanji, waving his arms.

Sanji seemed surprised at the outburst. 'Looks like he's sensitive about his age…'

"Uhh, you don't exactly look healthy, Ossan. I hate to break it to you, but you're way to old."

"Stop you're tongue! I'll show all you young people!" Now everyone was looking at the old man with sympathy as his face turned red. His small limbs seriously didn't hold any threat, but they weren't falling for that.

His anger seemed to build; his eyes grew an ever cooler, icy gray, but nothing else changed his wrinkled face. He was a good as Robin when it came to hiding his inner emotions. His sudden silence made the others move.

They tensed in a tight defensive circle, waiting for sudden blows to reach them. Zoro was staring at the old man with a scary expression and in a position with his teeth pushing his sword towards the old man. He wasn't about to forgive this crappy idiot of an old man for taking out his captain. He quickly glanced at Luffy, his tired figure under the annoying man. 'He's not down yet,' he thought with complete confidence in his captain and didn't waste another glance.

Franky wasn't as concentrated. He kept glancing at Sunny, pondering where Usopp, Chopper, and Robin were. But the one that seemed the most distracted was Nami. She still hadn't taken her eyes off of Luffy since he emerged. She was frozen in shock at how he just lay there. Usually, he would have a glowing aura of warmth and hope that pushed her on thinking nothing would ever happen to her when he was there. _Usually_, he would hop up and continue fighting with vigor, a grin on his face. Now seeing him on the ground, helpless, she was left with a hollow emptiness. The emptiness came with cold that chilled her and froze her in her place with a slightly open mouth. 'No way, no way, no way. How did he beat Luffy in less than a minute?' She shivered 'Why? Why is it so cold?' she thought as she stared at Luffy's closed eyes and unconscious body. 'No one we've ever faced had Luffy down this easily! We are in danger! I'm in danger!' The rare though of her actually thinking of the other's safety disappeared as quickly as it had come. The thought of running and saving herself came into her head. 'A creepy old guy that just defeated the strongest member on the ship, I don't stand a chance!'

The old man opened his slits of eyes, the folds of wrinkled skin folding up. They all flinched in response, except Zoro and Sanji who continued to stare him down. Sanji had his hands in his black pant pockets, his cigarette clenched between his stiff jaws turned down in a grimace and Zoro in his Santoryu stance, now had a black bandana around his head, his muscles popping out of his arms. The first mate and chief of the crew were ready to wreak revenge on the enemy.

The old man lifted his palms and an expected burst of clouds came out. They seemed to almost bubble up and shape into a giant dragon. It was half fully formed clouds and the other half of it seemed almost like a thin mist. As it shot back and forth, towering over them, it seemed to disappear in spots on its long body and suddenly reappear like a ghost. Its smooth, gray snout with long whiskers on it, which flowed like the spikes on his back, was wide open showing long teeth like two-foot long daggers.

Franky and Nami had their eyes bulging out of their heads, Brook let out a 'skull joke' about that, while Zoro and Sanji merely laughed darkly.

"Looks like I get to pummel some dragon meat," said Sanji. "You ready, Marimo-head?"

Zoro simply replied, "No, duh. I'm not sure about you though, Ero-cook."

"Just you watch this, I'm kickin' this guy's butt straight out of the water."

Nami was now hiding behind Franky.

"Go Sanji-kun! Zoro! Beat him up already!" she shouted behind her shield, Franky, with a serious face on and pumping her arms in the air.

"Oi!" Franky spun around.

"Yes, Nami-swan!" Sanji took off, completely fired up. He shouted over his shoulder, "Brook, Franky guard the Mini Merry!" It was obvious he was actually trying to use them as bodyguards for Nami.

"Geeze, look who's talking…" said Zoro exasperated, looking at Nami hiding, and shot off to join Sanji.

"I've got the old man," said Zoro and he took off to the right and Sanji curved left, actually kicking the air strong enough to move in it. The dragon reared up as he saw Sanji come close.

The cloud dragon flew forward at the speed of light. It seemed almost like it was gracefully swimming through the air like it was water. Sanji turned his body to the side, to get in a position to kick and the dragon opened its jaws to let out a blast of fog. The fog twisted in waves that rolled out to Sanji. He, in return, spun his legs it a twirling kick that blew it all away in shreds that disincarnated. Then he just continued towards the dragon.

"Collier Shoot!" He dropkicked a powerful blow to the dragon's long neck. When his foot made impact, it sunk into the dragon like it hit fluffy cotton candy. The dragon didn't seem to feel a thing, but it turned it cloudy, majestic head around to glare at Sanji with cooled, gray eyes like its master. Sanji cursed under his breath as he tried in vain to pull out his leg, but he didn't hesitate to swing his other leg around in a blur and sink it into the dragon once again with the same result.

Now stuck with both his legs imbedded in the dragon's neck, Sanji dangled helplessly as the dragon let out a roar and shot around, trying to shake him off.

"Darn it! Hold on, you crappy dragon!" Sanji's yelled as his voice wavered up and down with his body.

His voice was carried over to Zoro who was once again locked in a fierce sword battle with the old man on his cloud floor. Sparks flew, as the old man dragged his two swords with great strength against Zoro's three. Zoro was lost no concentration but heard Sanji. 'Ugg, what is that idiot doing?' Then he laughed evilly, 'So much for 'kickin' his butt out of the water.''

Thinking he'd better help the 'stupid cook', he suddenly increased his slashes and increased the pressure on the old man's swords. He had been trying to hold back on his elders, but now that his pride was on the line he would show no mercy.

The old man was pushed back in shock at the sudden increase in power, but continued to fight back with a cold, flat face, showing none of his shock. But as the old man applied more pressure to his limit, Zoro continuously applied more, until the old man dodged a slash only to be hit again on the shoulder. Not wasting any time, Zoro hit the old man with the back of his sword while he flinched at the stream of blood that stained his shawls and dripped down Zoro's sword. The enemy was sent flying backwards and continued to skip across the water for a good twenty yards before he made another cloud rest to prevent himself from falling in the water. He sat up with a small groan, a line of blood at the corner of his mouth, adding to his shoulder. Still, he received no break as Franky shot a blast of fire at him all the way from the boat, which he couldn't dodge.

Now Luffy was alone on the cloud floor near Zoro, so Zoro sheathed one of his swords to pick up Luffy and throw him into the Mini Merry behind him with a thump. He continued to lie perfectly still in his cloud wrap while Nami and the others rushed forward to help their captain.

"Luffy!" Nami started shaking him franticly.

"Ahhh, meat…" Luffy just groaned in response, still limp.

"Get up you BAKA!" Nami started pummeling his head to wake him up.

"W-whoa, hold on there, nee-chan," began Franky in terror of the blows. He backed off after a scary glance at Nami's face.

The old man was giving Zoro a stare made of pure ice, and Zoro's mouth pulled up into a small, evil smile in return.

Back to Sanji and the dragon, Sanji was about to hurl from the speed the dragon was racing around, when suddenly he began to slow. His feet were released and he fell, barley catching himself on a chunk of the dragon's soft under belly. He held on for his life, as the world around him spun like a top. After a few minutes of no movement, his head began to lose some of its light-headedness and he was able to see the fight below him near the surface of the water. The old man was down for the count and Zoro had saved Luffy. 'Darn it! That idiot's making me look like crap! I have to beat this thing for Nami-san.' That was when he noticed the dragon was flapping its large wings with much less vigor and its head was lowered on its now sagging neck. There was a large spot, exactly where he had just been that was now disintegrating. Then he looked back at the old man with his head down too, injured by a bad burn near his neck and a cut across his shoulder. After a few double takes and his brain doing the calculations, he was able to come up with a theory.

"Oi! Zoro!"

Zoro looked up, surprised at hearing his name from the cook hanging from the dragon above. 'Something must be important,' he thought.

"What?" he shouted back. But the Ossan took advantage of this momentary distraction and flew back to Zoro, who suddenly became preoccupied by a sword.

'Darn…' Sanji 'tsked' the old man. 'But that proves my theory.' He knew that the old man knew that he knew his secret.

"Franky, Brook," he shouted at the Mini Merry. They looked up in response. "Guard the boat and Nami-san!" and he let go to fall and join Zoro.

He produced a series of kicks to the opposite side of the Ossan to both the Ossan and Zoro's surprise.

"What are you doing?!" said Zoro through clenched teeth as he looked around the old man's body to Sanji.

"Any damage done to the old man happens to his cloud inventions; same injury and in the same place." He told his theory as fast as he could, dodging a backwards jab from the old man. So they both continued to hit the small person between them.

He managed to jump up high into the sky and Zoro and Sanji snapped their heads up to follow him. This time no clouds came out of his palms and he just seemed to fall back down to them.

"What the heck was that about?" asked Sanji.

"No clue." Zoro was looking up at the old man, not paying attention to his feet, when a vine of clouds began to tangle and crawly their way up his legs. It wasn't until too late and his feet up to his knees were completely covered, that he looked down with a grunt and swiped at the cloud with his sword. It softly sunk into it and popped back out.

"Shoot! What is this made of?" he spat, annoyed at a substance he couldn't cut.

* * *

"Weapons left!" Franky, Brook, and Nami were attacking the dragon. It made no damage to the dragon, but at least kept it at bay.

The dragon seemed to be gaining strength again and shot blasts of thick fog at them. They coughed and stumbled over their feet, but Nami, as the navigator, managed to use a cyclone tempo to blow it away back into the dragon's face. In one of these attacks, Brook accidentally tripped and fell on Luffy. He sat up and realized he was on the cloud that was wrapped around his captain. It smelt a little funny he thought, different from usual clouds. Also, he suddenly felt drained of energy and started to fall, until he slid away from Luffy and the cloud.

"Brook! What's wrong?" Nami looked over at him.

"I-it would seem that the cloud around Luffy-san is a bit different…"

Nami left the dragon to Franky and came over.

"What do you mean?" Then she smelled a strange smell drifting from Luffy.

"That smell…" She inhaled deeper. "It's sea salt!"

"So that means-"

Nami felt a rush of relief. "-Luffy isn't defeated! He's getting his energy drained because that Ossan can make clouds from even ocean water!" Nami finished in horror. "That guy's fruit is a devil fruit suppressor!"

* * *

*for those of you who arn't french speaking, vingt means twenty in french.

THANKS FOR READING! PLEASE REVIEW!~


	7. Author's Note

Author's Note: (Yikes! I had to resort to one of these! O_O)

Ok. So first off to all my readers out there, if there are any left, I am sorry. My fan fiction has not been updated in probably half a year and I have my reasons. So for those of you who don't care at all about this "Author's Note" and just want me to get the next chapter out, please disregard the following: Well, during school, my teachers decided to do their teaching duties and bombard me with homework. I also learned the MANY differences between high school and middle school when the Final Exams came and hit me in the face. So to make a long story short, I was WAY to busy to write because I had too much work to do. (Also, after writing about ten "persuasive essay assignments" in English class, it pretty much killed any chance of me wanting to write.) Reason number two: I had writer's block, which is a very common illness for writers, especially those also diagnosed with severe procrastination problems (Aka. Me.) Reason number three: I had a change of heart. This story is continuously changing in my mind and it's gotten to the point where I don't like the way my already written beginning and my ideal ending mix. So, I need to re-think the entire story plot to make it fit what I have so far.

So in conclusion, I am sorry if I'm boring you with my pointless drabbles, but I do have some good news! I have started writing again thanks to the new One Piece movie (Strong World, which was AMAZING by the way) and with the new release of Confession68's fic. Thanks to both of them for inspiring my long writer's block! So I should have chapters coming soon! Please stick with me! Arigato! ~ Sunny09


End file.
